Clinical Placement and Internship Program

OD4 Internship Clinical Placement Program

Practitioners are invited to participate in the internship
program by hosting students at their clinic. The fourth year of the OD
is about interns gaining breadth of experience and clinical confidence
before graduation. OD4 students gain their core clinical experiences
from UMEyecare and ACO. In this final year, interns gain authentic
clinical optometry experience from exposure to a range of settings
(rural, specialist, metropolitan, hospital & ophthalmology), working
through actual cases in rounds with experienced optometrists and
continuing to build on their knowledge and skills through targeted
self-directed learning.

All we ask is that clinical supervisors provide a safe,
authentic learning environment for interns and offer scaffolding,
feedback and mentoring.

Interns spend two lots of two weeks in a rural practice, one day
for six weeks in a general metropolitan practice and one day for three
weeks at a specialised metropolitan practice.

OD3 Mid-Year Clinical Placement Program

Practitioners are invited to participate in the OD3 clinical
placement program. Third year OD students start seeing a significant
number of patients at both UMEyecare and the Australian College of
Optometry. We are seeking practitioners who are willing to host one or
more OD3 students in their practice for 1 day per week for three weeks,
generally in the first three weeks of July. This is a period between
Semesters where our students will still be attending clinical duties
but will not have lectures to attend. The broad aim of the program is
for the student to observe an optometrist in action in a private
practice setting and how they interact with their patients and staff.

Benefits for Hosting Doctor of Optometry Students

Mentoring the next generation of optometrists can be very
rewarding. It is the opportunity to meet young, thoughtful and
engaging students who will be the future of the profession. Hosts
(Clinical Placement Supervisors) will have the opportunity to develop
their clinical teaching skills, be involved in the teaching/learning
process and be actively engaged in collaborative links with the
University. In addition to this, hosts are eligible to claim five CPD
points per semester for participation in postgraduate optometric
education (see OBA, Guidelines for continuing professional development for endorsed and non-endorsed optometrists)

Recognition of support for the program

To show our appreciation to Clinical Placement Supervisors who
participate in our External Placement Program, we are pleased to
offer:

a DOVS newsletter that will inform Clinical Placement Supervisors of teaching and learning initiatives;

a certificate of appreciation specifying that the Clinical
Placement Supervisor (and their practice) contributes to the University
of Melbourne teaching program;

access to expert teachers, clinicians and teaching resources;

special rates for Specialist Certificates in Clinical
Optometry offered by the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences
(DOVS) which can potentially lead onto the Master of Clinical Optometry;

acknowledgement of participating Clinical Placement
Supervisors on the department website as an Adjunct Clinical Teaching
Instructor;

networking opportunities;

invitations to Webinars and Seminars to discuss the sharing of good teaching and learning practices.